VATICAN CITY
inSerbia
A Vatican investigative committee has convicted Lebanese priest Mansour Labaki of sexually abusing at least three children and soliciting sex from a number of others, a French Christian magazine reported on Monday.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), a Vatican body that investigates allegations of pedophilia committed by members of the Church, sentenced Labaki to “a life of prayer,” and barred him from attending public mass, speaking to the media, or contacting the children he allegedly molested, La Croix said.
Labaki, a Maronite cleric, author and composer, had built a reputation in Lebanon as a caregiver to orphans and needy children through the various charities and orphanages to his name.
A profile written on Labaki in a US-based Catholic periodical last year quotes him as saying that he treats the orphans under his care as if they were his own children.
The priest added that his newest shelter Kfar Sama, located in an eastern suburb of Beirut, was built “not only for orphans, but [for] those who are looking for tenderness.”
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